1999-12-03 04:00:00 PDT Mountain View -- Although trains will cease making stops at the tiny Castro Caltrain station in Mountain View early next year, the station and its historic name will apparently remain intact.

The Caltrain board voted unanimously yesterday to shut down the little-used station at Rengstorff and Crisanto avenues on February 6. However, the wooden structure will remain at its current location or moved elsewhere, according to Caltrain spokeswoman Janet McGovern.

Transit officials said they hope to reroute existing shuttle service -- likely Caltrain's North Bayshore Area bus route -- to transport current Castro users to nearby stations once it shuts down.

The Castro stop sits about a mile to the north of the larger downtown Mountain View station and about a half-mile south of Mountain View's new San Antonio station, which opened in April at Showers Drive and San Antonio Avenue.

Board members also called for the completion of an existing pedestrian pathway, begun by Santa Clara County, between the Castro and San Antonio stations.

In the 1800s, the Castro family granted Southern Pacific -- and later Caltrain -- the right-of-way through its Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas in Mountain View, enabling trains to link San Jose and San Francisco. In exchange, the longtime California family was granted free, unlimited passage on the railway.

Board members Stephen M. Schmidt and Arthur L. Lloyd, who is a descendant of the Castros, suggested that either the San Antonio stop or the downtown Mountain View station on Castro Street be renamed after the soon-to-be defunct stop so as not to lose the family name.

Castro's shutdown has been in the works since the late 1970s. The new-fashioned stations, a shrinking number of riders, no parking and outmoded amenities placed the bare bones stop on Caltrain's hit list. The Valley Transit Authority -- the latest agency to propose closing Castro -- opted against renovating the station after finding out that it would cost between $3 million to $5 million.

As it stands, San Antonio services some 420 passengers each weekday, with 63 out of a possible 68 trains stopping there. Since that station opened, the number of daily riders to and from Castro has been cut in half to less than 120. With only 16 trains stopping at Castro on weekdays now, the station ranks 26th out of 35 in ridership.

McGovern said some two dozen patrons voiced their opinions regarding the Castro shutdown via letters, e-mail and voice messages. About half were in favor of the closure.

"At this point, it makes sense to close it," conceded Cris Castro, a Foster City resident and a fifth-generation Castro. "After a while, you have to forget the sentimentality of the thing and realize that it's a sound business decision."

Only a handful of people attended yesterday's 10 a.m. board meeting in San Carlos to voice their opinion. Of those, most said the building, which Castro said burnt down in the 1970s and was rebuilt, should be preserved for historic reasons.